Maurice de Saxe

Maurice de Saxe (28 October 1696-20 November 1750) was a Marshal of the Kingdom of France, an illegitimate son of August II of Poland. Saxe was known for his skillful victories and his reforms in the French Army, making lambskin wigs standard issue for all troops and implementing five-year conscription.

Biography
Maurice, Comte de Saxe, is reputed to be one of the most distinguished military commanders in Europe, alongside the Duke of Marlborough and Frederick the Great. His successful career demonstrates the feeble hold national identity had on aristocrats of the period. As the illegitimate son of the Elector of Saxony, Maurice served a military apprenticeship with the Austrian army of Eugene of Savoy and the Russian forces of Peter the Great, before opting to enter the service of France. He was made a Lieutenant-General in 1734 for his part in the siege of Philippsburg during the War of the Polish Succession.

In the opening stages of the subsequent War of the Austrian Succession, Maurice's coup in seizing Prague through a surprise night attack was much admired. He would have led an invasion of Great Britain in 1744 if the French Navy had been able to transport his troops across the English Channel. In 1745, he gained control of the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium) with his victory at Fontenoy and remained in command there until the end of the war. He also won at Rocoux in 1746, and at the end of the war took Maastricht. Maurice's treatise, Reveries on the Art of War, was published after his death. It contributed much to modern military theory, although his ideas range from the sensible (recruitment by conscription for a five-year term) to the eccentric (lambskin wigs as standard issue for all troops).